When my young lab turned 7/8mths old he turned into a wild thing! All his formative training, his steadiness, his respect for me just went out the window! I have many years experience training puppies for Guide dogs. This I am taking personally! What have I done to this lovely gundog pup that is so wrong to have him turn out to be such a Hot Head?
Sounds like he has hit the adolescent stage which some dogs seems worse than others. Go back to basic training and praise every time he does something positive.
Hello there, and a warm welcome. You haven't done anything wrong. If you haven't had this before, then you have been very lucky indeed! As Labradors grow up, all those lovely puppy responses that you (and I) smugly thought were trained turn out not to have been trained responses at all. All you had was 'puppy responses' at a time when your puppy thought you were the sun, moon and stars. Then they grow up a bit, and learn about: Smells! Other dogs' bottoms! And birds! And squirrels! And...And... You stop being their sun, moon and stars, and have to compete... It is absolutely nothing to do with respect - dogs have no concept of respect - and it is everything to do with creating a trained response. Here are some articles which might help: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/3-rea...s-disobedient/ http://totallydogtraining.com/the-tr...-obedient-dog/ http://totallydogtraining.com/stages/
I'm no expert but it sounds to me as if you have a perfectly normal teenager. It's not personal, and as a dog he has no concept of respect, you are his human companion. It's very common for adolescent dogs to 'lose' their training at around the 7/8 month mark. It, of course, is not forgotten just placed on a back burner. You'll both come through the other side, it will just take patience, training and consistency to get there.
Yep. You are in adolescent angst. I know it seems early at seven months but Molly entered adolescence at seven months, it was hell on four paws. You have done nothing wrong. And come to that neither has the dog. He is just a ball of energy that neither he nor you can control. I know that sounds wimpish and as if I opted out, but I can assure you I didn't..the worst thing you can do is react, shouting at them and trying to physically subdue them and "show them who is boss" will only wind them up and make matters worse. I have clung onto fences and lampposts while she raged around me on the lead. I was deeply embarrassed by my dogs conduct. I was covered with bruises where she careered into me. I could go on. My trainer got it right when he said the problem was "puppy brain in adult dog body". The best advice I can offer is to continue calmly with your training. Sadly you have many weeks of this to come.
